Genre: Puzzle
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Void Star Creations
Release Date: February 6, 2008

If there's one thing we can all agree upon, it's that the casual gaming market is choked to the gills with gem-swapping, color-matching puzzle games. Therefore, if you want to get noticed in the cutthroat world of Xbox Live Arcade, a developer needs to make a game with a hook, something that hasn't been seen a thousand times before. Thankfully, that is what Void Star Creations has done in the fun and frantic Poker Smash.

While most gem-swapping games require you to match shapes or colors, Poker Smash takes things in an entirely different direction. Pieces consist of playing card tiles (10 through Ace), and you must use the tiles to create horizontal or vertical hands of three-of-a-kind or better. Thus, you'll be positioning tiles in all manner of ways in order to make flushes, full houses, and the crown jewel of them all, the royal flush. To help you along the way, the game allows you to speed up or slow down the scrolling cards by holding either LT or RT, and you are also given a supply of bombs to remove pesky cards that stand between you and a massive combo.

Like most puzzle games, you rack up a high score by creating chains, and the points you earn are represented as poker winnings. As you make matches, the game speeds up little by little à la Tetris in order to force you to think faster and react quicker so the tiles don't reach the top of the screen and end your game. To further spice things up, periodically you will be given challenges to create certain hands within a very restrictive time limit. Thus, you must make a split-second strategy decision to either proceed as normal in order to keep the ever-rising columns under control, or abandon crowd management in the hopes of cashing in on a big payday.

At the end of each game, you are given a rundown of your winnings, and the amount goes into an overall pot showing how much you've managed to collect over the span of several games. Thankfully, there's also a practical use for the money, as you can go to the in-game store and cash it in for new themes, gamer pictures, and video solutions to challenges in the game's Puzzle mode.

Speaking of modes, Poker Smash features your standard single-player fare with an untimed, "play until you lose" mode, timed mode, and puzzle. The untimed version is where you'll find the biggest scores, shuffling and dropping tiles until you just can't keep up anymore, whereas timed mode will force you to forgo the small-scale stuff in order to run up your score as high as possible in three minutes. Puzzle is just what it sounds like, with a series of brain-benders forcing you to figure out just how exactly to contort the available tiles to clear the board.

Online and offline multiplayer is also available, so players can jump into head-to-head matches and see just how good they are. Local games are presented in split-screen, while only your board is visible in online games. This is a bit of a downer, as the only way to know how you're doing is by checking the chip count. It seems odd that split-screen would be included in one multiplayer mode and not the other, but in this case, I suppose you just have to take the good with the bad.

Of course, in order to score any points, you have to know how to move the tiles, and thankfully things are pretty easy, thanks to an intuitive control scheme. Since tiles can only be moved horizontally (though matches can be either horizontal or vertical), the game employs the left thumbstick to move your cursor, and the right thumbstick to shift cards to the left or right. It's a wonderfully streamlined system, and it allows you to move around the board with fluidity as you set off a chain reaction on one side while setting up a match on the other. The only time you'll even touch the buttons is to manipulate time and drop a bomb; the rest of the time, you'll simply be letting your two thumbs do all the work.

The title's visuals look nice, with the vibrant, defined backgrounds definitely pop, but the audio could use some work. The soundtrack is highly eclectic, mixing rock and country with what can best be described as a Jamaican jam session. The music abruptly jumps from one track to another, and the soundtrack always progresses in the exact same order. While none of the music is particularly bad, a lot of it just doesn't seem to fit with this game style.

The most significant knock on Poker Smash, and the one that might cause a lot of people to avoid it, is that you have to have a fairly solid grasp on the rules of poker to be able to play effectively. Those who are familiar with the terminology and ordering of hands will likely find a lot to enjoy, while anyone who doesn't know the game will probably grow frustrated and quit fairly quickly.

Thus, while Poker Smash is a good game, it's not for everyone. The unique gameplay and deep strategy make this the ultimate test of both brains and reflexes, and if you've been looking for poker with a twist, then this might be right up your alley. However, if you don't know a full house from a flush, then you'd likely be better off steering clear and sticking with Bejeweled.

Score: 8.5/10